Avian Experiment 35
by Ciiirce
Summary: After the success of the Flock a scientist wonders what happens if they put the bird DNA in after birth? Begins at the School centered around Cassie, but the Flock will come along soon. Will contain Faxness, and CassieIggy Ciggy?.
1. Chapter 1

Prologue

"Are you sure about this?"

"Of course I'm sure!"

"But…"

"But nothing!" the scientist snapped. He glared at the younger man. "Don't you think I've worked this all out? I've been planning this experiment for almost six years, ever since…" he trailed off. He shook his head. He had more important things to think about now. "And it was successful with the human-lupine experiments, wasn't it?" he said defiantly.

"Yes, but…" the younger man trailed off, and sighed. It was true, and he knew there was no point in arguing. The other had been planning this since before he started work.

"Experiment 3.5, avian-human hybrid." the older man muttered as he wrote in his records. "Avian percentage - 2."

There was more, but the other man tuned out, grabbing a pen and scrawling down his own record of the experiment. He had only been working in the laboratory, or the School as it was more commonly known, for just over a year. None of his experiments had yet been successful, except for the Erasers, version 6.0. Of course, they were being improved even more, but he still held that glow of pride that he had helped towards making the perfect specimen.

A woman entered the lab. Her dark eyes scanned the two men already there, and she spoke to the older one. "Have you decided?" she asked, setting a clipboard on one of the desks.

He nodded. "Yes. Experiment 3.5 is to go ahead."

The woman nodded, she had been expecting this for a long time. The other man was one of the newer scientists, and he looked unsure. But give him time and he would be fine with the idea.

Then she remembered something. "But… how will we get a specimen?" she asked.

The scientist smiled. "I thought you might ask that," he said. He clicked his fingers once.

The woman looked into the shadows of the dimly lit room, and her breath caught in her throat. He must be taking this seriously, to send the best after a specimen.

"Good evening ladies and gentlemen, how may I be of service?" Ari grinned, showing a mouth full of long, yellow, deadly canines.


	2. Chapter 2

"So, you doing anything over the weekend?"

It was a Friday afternoon, and school had just finished for the week. Two long, glorious days of the weekend stretched out in front of me. And of course, there was the matter of the equally glorious sight walking beside me. Josh Rickson.

Oh yes, believe it or not, Josh was actually paying attention to me! He was, in my opinion, anyway, the best looking boy in school, and although I had never had an official 'crush' on him, he had always been one of the better boys in my class.

"No, I don't think so," I shrugged.

"Oh, well there's a disco on down at the Nerve Centre tomorrow night, I was thinking that maybe you'd want to meet up there or something," he said, looking at me with those deep blue eyes of his.

I smiled. "Yeah, that would be great!" I said. "Here, call me tonight," I said, taking a pen out of my pocked. I unzipped my schoolbag, grabbed a book and ripped a bit of paper out of a book. I scribbled my number down and gave it to him.

"Thanks," he said, folding it up and putting it in his pocket. "I'll ring you tonight. See you then!" Then he smiled a wide, white-toothed grin at me, and turned around to get on his bus.

I felt bubbles of excitement rise up in me like, well, bubbles. I couldn't believe it. So far I'd been pretty unlucky in the love department, but now it looked as though my luck might just be changing. The Nerve Centre, by the way, is our local youth club - only it's only for people aged above twelve and below seventeen. At fourteen, it was one of the places me and my friends liked to hang out. But this was something else. I grinned and started on my walk home. It was only ten minutes, so I didn't mind. I liked the walk, it helped me to clear my head and offered some quiet time to think.

I tugged the bobble out of my light brown, annoyingly bushy hair, so it came free of it's ponytail and fell just past my shoulders. It doesn't look especially bushy when it's down, but when I tie it up little bits of hair escape and stick out. Usually I'm not vain, but it's just so annoying when all the other girls have this smooth, sleek stuff and I'm stuck with a bushy mop.

Anyway, I continued to walk along the footpath. It was relatively quiet around here, most people got the bus or were picked up, and most of their houses were in the other direction. There weren't that many cars, and none were parked except for a Hummer at the side of the road.

I wasn't really paying attention though, I was daydreaming, thinking about tomorrow night. I was excited, and I couldn't wait. I smiled as I continued to walk.

Suddenly, someone grabbed me. I only had time to let out a small scream, before I felt something jab into my arm.

I lost all feeling in my arms and legs, and my vision went fuzzy.

Then, everything went black

Gradually, I realise that I was conscious. With a groan I opened my eyes.

Then the pain hit me.

I screamed, and my eyes welled up with tears. The pain was immense, I hurt all over, but my shoulder blades burned like hell. I was shaking all over, curled up into a ball as if to somehow protect myself. For a moment, I just wanted to die, I just wanted it all to be over.

Then, through the haze of pain, I felt someone grab my arm and inject me with something.

I slumped back as the pain faded. I was still shaking though. After a few minutes I had regained enough composure to think clearly.

The first thing I thought was, _'Where the hell am I?' _

I looked out through… bars. Bars? It looked like I was in a cage or something. I looked at the roof. Yes, there it was in black print. I was in a dog crate, size large.

Not exactly five star accommodation.

Right, now I knew I was in a dog crate, but a dog crate _where_. I edged forward and looked out through the bars.

And gasped.

It looked like I was in a… lab. All around me were things that looked as though they were human… once. Beside me there was a thing that looked like a baby, only it had scales, like a lizard, and large, bulging eyes on either side of it's head.

I felt nauseas, and leant back against the back of my cage.

Then I felt it.

Something on my back. No, not _on_ my back - _part_ of my back. I craned my neck around, and found that my school shirt was ripped, two large slits down the back. And there was something behind the slits.

Gingerly, I felt my back. What I felt wasn't skin… it felt like… but no, it couldn't be.

Gently, I tried to extend… _them_. And gasped.

As I tried, the two large, things, on my back extended slightly. I felt a sharp burst of pain as I did so. But I barely noticed.

It was impossible. It couldn't be! And yet it was.

I had _wings_.


	3. Chapter 3

I almost fainted.

Really, I did.

"Oh my God…" I murmured, running my fingers along my… erm… feathers.

That sounded _so_ weird.

The ones that I could see wee a very light brown colour, with a few white here and there. They still hurt to move, but there wasn't enough room in my dog crate to extend them anyway. To think, not too long ago I was just an ordinary girl, walking out of an ordinary school, and now…

Wait.

_How_ long ago?

I realised I had no idea whatsoever how long I had been in this lab place. Surely it couldn't have been more than a few hours… right? It struck me that the whole wing-attaching process must have taken ages, I could have been here for _days_, even _weeks_. Tears welled up in my eyes for the second time that morning, or afternoon, or whatever, I couldn't tell. Just when things had been starting to go well for me… _this_ happened.

I might never get out of here. I might never see my family again. _Why_ did it have to be _me? _What did _I_ ever do to deserve something like this?

However, I didn't have any more time to think about that sort of thing, because someone was coming. I crawled forward and looked out of the bars of my cage. Two people in long white coats - scientists - were walking towards me. I pulled back as they looked into my cage.

"It worked?" one of them, a younger man, said.

"Of course it did! The experiment was a complete success - just like I said it would be," the other, an older man, replied.

_Experiment? _I thought. _They're talking about me!_ I wanted to say something, to tell them that I wasn't an 'experiment', I was a human girl! But then again, maybe I wasn't, not any more.

But, even if I had wanted to, I didn't have time to say anything. The two men had unlocked my cage, and were reaching into it. They grabbed me and pulled me out. "Get off me!" I said, trying to pull away. But as I did so, I felt a strong electric shock, and yelped in pain. I noticed that one of them was holding something, it was that which gave me the shock. I didn't resist any more.

They brought me to a room with a treadmill, some expensive looking computers, and a whole lot of wires. They grabbed the wires and started attaching them to my wrists, my forehead and my neck. Then they pushed me onto the treadmill. "Run," one of them said.

I started to run - I had no choice, the treadmill had started to move. I watched in horror as the speed rose, higher, higher, until I was running faster that I had ever thought possible.

Then I realised something.

_I wasn't struggling_.

I was running flat out, faster than any human ever could, and yet I wasn't struggling. I felt a small feeling of hope, maybe this would be easier than I had thought.

But, as the minutes dragged by, they didn't stop. I kept running, as fast as I could to keep from being thrown off the treadmill. I felt a sick feeling. They were going to keep me running until I collapsed. In that case, I shouldn't be running so fast. I started to slow down, but let out a cry of pain as I felt another electric shock. It hurt like hell, and I knew there was going to be a burn mark. Immediately I speeded up.

There was a clock on the wall in front of me. I had been running for ten minutes now. I watched the minute hand. Fifteen minutes. Twenty. Twenty-five. Half an hour. I had been running for half an hour. This was longer than I had ever run before.

One hour, and three electric shocks after that, I was still running. My lungs were burning like hell. The minute hand was still moving, unaware of my pain. The scientists, however were aware of it, and worse, they _liked_ it. They _wanted_ to hurt me, wanted to see my reaction. I was drenched in sweat, I wanted to stop so badly. I tried slowing down again, but I just got another shock.

Ten minutes later though, I knew I couldn't go on. I closed my eyes and stopped. I collapsed, and went flying off the treadmill. I felt two more electric shocks, but they were more annoying than painful. Someone put a straw into my mouth, and I sucked hard. Water had never tasted so good.

I was faintly aware of having the wires ripped off my skin and of being lifted and put into my cage, but after that I was finally left along. Thankfully, I sank into unconsciousness, the only place left to retreat to.

The next few weeks were torture. It was tests - day in, day out. They made me swallow radioactive dye to study my circulation system. They took x-ray after x-ray. They injected me with chemicals to see how I would react. They took blood samples at least once every three days - I sometimes felt dizzy from lack of it.

One of the most shocking things was when they took my weight and height. Before I had been about five foot three, now I was five foot _seven_. And I weighed so little it shocked me. I wasn't anorexic, I knew I wasn't, so how was this possible?

I was shoved into the same dog crate every day, once they were finished with me. I hurt all over, I threw up, I was completely miserable. I just wanted to die, even death would be a thousand times better than _this_.

At the end of yet another day of experiments/tortures, I was lying in my cage, when I noticed something, no some_one_, new in the lab. A girl, about my age, was in the cage next to mine. Unlike the other experiments, who were all babies and had obvious mutations, she looked normal.

"Uh… uh, hi," I said nervously. I had tried talking to some of the others before, but none of them had responded.

However, the girl looked up, startled. Her eyes scanned the room before locking onto me. "You can talk?" she said.

"Uh, yeah," I said, just as shocked as she was.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, crawling forward in her cage to get a better look at me. "You look… normal."

"I'm… I'm an experiment," I replied, looking away from her for a moment. An experiment. An 'it'. I didn't think I would ever get used to that.

"Why? What did they do to you?" she asked.

"They… they gave me wings and stuff. I have bird DNA," I replied, thinking about how weird it must sound to this stranger.

"You're kidding," she said, a shocked look on her face.

"No, I'm serious," I said. "Why are you so shocked? I mean, look around you! It's not that hard to believe when you see all these other mutants."

"Yeah, I know, it's just… well… me too." she said.

My eyes widened _'me too'_? But, I had thought I was the only one! "You mean, you have _wings?_ Like _me?_" I asked her.

"Yeah, like you. But why haven't I seen you before?" she asked.

"I've only been here for about a month," I explained, my green eyes locking with her brown ones.

"You… you mean they put the DNA in _after _birth?" she said, a note of shock in her voice.

"Yeah," I said simply. She looked down, and there was silence between us for a minute. "I'm Cassie," I said, to break it.

She looked up at me, and gave a small smile. "Max," she said, "Maximum Ride."


	4. Chapter 4

**Just realised I forgot to put these things in. **

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN MAXIMUM RIDE. That belongs to James Patterson. However, Cassie and the plot **_**are**_** mine. **

-

I couldn't sleep.

I tried, but I just couldn't. From the looks of things, neither could Max. she was crouched in her cage, watching the other experiments, as if she was waiting for something. Or someone.

We had talked further, and I had been told that she wasn't alone. She had mentioned a 'flock', but she didn't say anything when I asked her where they were. She just muttered something about hidden cameras, and went silent. That had been two hours ago.

Now, I was slumped against the back wall of my cage, trying to make sense of it all. I had thought things had been complicated before, but somehow this seemed to make things even more confusing.

One more thing. She had told me about the Erasers.

Human-wolf experiments. From what she said, they were vicious, blood-thirsty beasts and had been following her and her 'flock' for almost six months now. I had heard brief remarks about these experiments, but hadn't paid much attention. Somehow, I knew from the way she spoke of them that she had had some pretty bad experiences.

Finally, after a lot more tossing and turning, I managed to drift into a fitful sleep, where I dreamt confused dreams of Erasers, flying, and people in white coats.

I woke up to the sound of panic.

Alarms were going off in every direction. I sat up, banging my head against the top of the dog crate. I winced, looking out between the bars, I saw that it was chaos. Scientists were everywhere, along with some people who looked normal, almost like male models. I looked over to where Max was, she was crouched in a position, a fighting fire alight in her eyes.

I was about to ask what was going on, when someone grabbed my cage, and lifted it. I ground my teeth to prevent myself from yelping in pain as I was dumped onto some sort of trolley thing. Max's cage was dropped on top of mine.

"Hey! What the hell are you doing!" she shouted.

_My thoughts exactly, _I thought.

"We're taking you somewhere secure," a female scientist answered. One of the male model-like people started pushing us - he was surprisingly strong. I looked out of my cage. Where were they taking us? Why weren't we 'secure' here? How did - ?

_BANG_

A loud noise cut into my train of thought. I swivelled my head around, to see five people run into the room. Immediately, some of the men in the room - the ones that looked like models - advanced on them. As I watched, they started to… _morph_. Their face elongated into wolf snouts, and long fangs appeared in their moths. When they were finished they looked like wolf-men.

_Erasers._

So that was what they looked like.

I didn't have time to think anything more though, because there was a fight going on. There were about six wolf m- Erasers, and only five of the others, but they seemed to be holding their own. Even the youngest one, a girl who looked about six, seemed to be fighting well. One of them, a tall, dark haired guy about my age, finished off an Eraser and ran over to where Max and I were. He opened Max's cage, and she leapt out. By now most of the scientists and Erasers were out of action, and Max and the others were about to run out of the lab.

"Wait!" I called. _Please don__'__t let them leave me here!_

They turned around, and their eyes fell on me. Then they looked at Max, who gave a short nod. She ran over to my cage and unlocked it. "Come on," she said, as I scrambled out. Then she immediately started running after the rest of the 'flock', as I remembered her calling them. I followed, trying to keep up. They ran through a maze of corridors, past lab rooms, I had absolutely no idea how they remembered it all. Finally, though, we came outside.

There was no way out.

A tall wall, with barbed wire on the top, surrounded the whole place. I groaned. We came all this way for nothing! I heard a noise, and looking back , saw that there were Erasers streaming out of the laboratory. _Dozens_ of them.

Max's eyes widened, as did the rest of the Flock's. Then she shouted something.

"U and A guys!" she yelled, and they all started running.

"Wait! What's a U and A?" I shouted, as I ran with them.

"_UP_ and _AWAY_!" someone replied.

Then they unfurled their wings.

They were massive, for a moment all I could do was stand and stare. Oh my God. They were _flying_.

Max turned around, hovering in the air. "What are you waiting for?" she yelled.

I started to run. The Erasers were close now, I knew there was only one way out of this. I took a deep breath, and unfurled my wings.

They caught the wind, and I pulled down hard. I soared upwards, and I pulled up, then down again. Up, down. Up, down. A continuous rhythm, puling me up into the sky. I looked down, and it hit me.

I was _flying. _

My wings were at least thirteen feet across, mostly a light brown, but with some white and a few gold coloured feathers here and there. I couldn't help it - I laughed. Yes, I may have been put through weeks of torture, I may have been on the run from wolf-like creatures that wanted to rip me apart, and yes, my life would never be the same again. But… _flying._

I flew clumsily up to where the others were waiting. I couldn't help feeling myself go red, they were all such good flyers compared to me! They were soaring gracefully, while I could barely keep off the ground. They flew over to me.

"You have wings too?"

"Why haven't we seen you before?"

"What's your name?"

"How old are you?"

I was bombarded with questions, but didn't have time to answer any of them, as Max shouted, "Lets get moving people, we've got company!" Immediately everyone looked down, and I took a sharp intake of breath.

Erasers.

_Winged_ Erasers.

Things just kept getting better, didn't they?

"There's too many to fight, guys. We're going to have to make a run for it," Max said. Then they started flying in the opposite direction from the School. I had to work hard just to keep up with them. Within about fifteen minutes my wings were burning, and I was out of breath, but no one else seemed to be showing signs of being tired, so I just kept going. A quick glance over my shoulder showed the Erasers as tiny specks in the distance. Five minutes later, they were gone.

We did some hard, fast flying for another fifteen minutes, by the end of which I felt almost faint with exhaustion, but at last Max slowed down, and the others followed her lead. I experimented for a while, before finally finding a way to adjust my wings so that I could glide for a while instead of having to flap constantly. This made flying a _lot_ easier, and because I wasn't working so hard I had time to enjoy it.

We flew for another half hour after that. Soon we reached a valley, with cliffs reaching sky high, and caves set into the rock. Max called out, "Okay guys, we're going to land in that cave over there and take a rest."

The others immediately followed her as she glided down, into a cave. I watched as they landed, trying to take it all in. I hadn't tried landing yet, so I wasn't sure how I would manage. Soon it was my turn, and I edged forward (if that's possible to do in the air), but as hard as I tried, I still hit the ground too fast for comfort, and ended up doing a face plant.

I winced as I stood up. Note to self: _Not so fast_.

"You okay?" someone asked - a dark-skinned girl, a bit younger than me - maybe about eleven.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I replied.

"Good," she said. "Because I used to do that a lot when I was younger and just learning to fly, and I know it hurts a lot. I still do it sometimes, but not too often, only, like, once in a blue moon. Hey, have you ever really thought about that saying. 'Once in a blue moon'. Have you ever actually seen a blue moon. Do they even exist? I once read this book about the moon. Did you know that the tide is affected by the moon because it -" Max slapped a hand across the girl's mouth. She peeled it off and grinned at her. "Sorry," she said.

I smiled, and Max grinned at me. But then she wiped it off her face, and looked serious. "Right, guys, this is Cassie. She's fourteen years old, and she's Avian American too, as you've probably guessed. However, that's about all I know, so I think it's about time we learned a bit more about each other. What do you say?" she asked me.

I nodded. "Sounds good."

Let the questioning begin.


	5. Chapter 5

**Right guys, first of all, I would like to apologise for not updating for so long! I just got sidetracked by… erm… a **_**lot**_** of things.**

**By the way, I started this before the third book came out, so it's based after SOF. Just wanted to clear that up.**

**This chapter is dedicated to Howler At The Silver Moon, who's review finally got me out of my hole and updating again! Speaking of her, I'd like to suggest that you read her fic - 'Yet to be Titled'.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride. However, I do own Cassie and the plot - so NO STEALIE!**

"Okay, we'll go first," Max said. "As you already know, I'm Max, and this is the rest of the Flock. Guys?"

"Fang, fourteen. No powers," the tall, dark haired guy said simply.

"Wait a minute, powers?" I asked, confused.

"Some of us have special powers, side effects from the experiments," Max explained. "For example, I can fly at supersonic speed and I have…" she trailed off, and looked away from me. I decided not to push it any further, I was feeling a bit stunned at this new revelation.

"Okay," I said simply.

"Right. Back to business. Iggy?"

"Erm, I'm Iggy, I'm fourteen. No powers, but I'm pretty good with bombs," the tallest guy said. "And I'm, err, blind," he continued, looking a bit embarrassed.

I opened my mouth to say something, but decided against it and shut it again.

"I'm Nudge, I'm eleven, and I can, like, sense leftover energy from places," one of the younger girls, the one who had spoken to me before, grinned. "You know, if someone's been sitting at a computer, and I touch the computer, I can tell who they are, what they were doing, and what password they used," she explained.

"I'm the Gasman, I'm eight" said the youngest boy. "And I can mimic voices," he said, the last few words in my voice. I raised my eyebrows, impressed.

"I'm Angel," said the youngest girl. "I'm six, and I can read minds, control people with my mind, breath underwater, and talk to fish," she said.

I raised my eyebrows. That was a _lot _of powers.

"We were born at the school, and spent all of our lives there, until four years ago, when a whitecoat called Jeb took us away to live with him. Two years ago, he disappeared," I could see pain on Max's face, and anger, although she looked like she was trying to hide it. "Recently, as we were trying to save Angel from the Erasers who kidnapped her, we discovered that he's working with the School, and I'm supposed to save the world somehow. Now we're constantly on the run from Erasers and the whitecoats. The end," she said, folding her arms. "So now you know our story, what about you?"

"Well," I sighed. "My life was pretty normal, until about a month ago, although it could have been longer, I don't really know. Anyway, one day I was just walking home from school, and there were these guys in a Hummer, and they injected me with something that knocked me out, next thing I know, I wake up and I'm in a dog crate in a lab somewhere, with wings, weighing half of what I used to weigh, and that sort of thing," I explained. "Until you guys showed up, they would torture me almost every day. And that's about it," I said, blinking hard to fight back the tears that I could feel welling up, as I remembered what they had done to me. I would _not_ cry in front of the Flock.

There was an awkward silence for a moment. Max looked at me, then at the rest of the flock. "Right guys, I think we'll stay here for tonight. Give us al a chance to rest up, that sort of thing," she said. "Iggy, get a fire going," she said, rummaging around in one of the backpacks.

"But, he's blind," I muttered to Nudge. "Wouldn't it be safer for someone else to start a fire?"

Nudge just looked at me. "Iggy's the best at that sort of thing," she said matter-of-factly. "He's been blind since they tried to 'improve' his eyesight at the School, when he was five, so he's had a lot of time to get used to it," she explained.

"Oh," I said, feeling myself go red with embarrassment.

"Don't worry. He didn't hear," the little girl, Angel, said, looking up at me.

"How did you…" I started to ask, but then I remembered, she could read minds. There were a lot of things around here that I was going to have to start getting used to.

Ten minutes later we were sitting around a fire, toasting this, that, and anything we could really. I was getting used to having to eat more - or having a higher metabolism, as the scientists back at the lab called it. For about five minutes there was nothing but the sound of everyone eating. But, after a while, the normal chatter resumed. Iggy and the Gasman were deep in conversation, occasionally I caught the word 'bomb' or 'explosion'. Nudge and Angel were talking to each other, and Fang and Max were having a muttered conversation. I felt like a bit of an outsider, I mean, these guys had known each other all their lives, and I had just showed up, all alone, with no idea what was going on, no flying ability so to speak, and no idea of how to take care of myself.

I sighed and rotated my hot dog over the fire.

"You okay?"

I looked up, and saw Iggy looking at me. Well, he wasn't actually _looking_, of course, but he had his head turned in my direction.

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine," I lied, biting of the end of my hotdog.

"It must be a lot to take in," he said quietly. Then he put his hand on my arm, and started rubbing it. I looked up at him, and he blushed, almost as if he could see me.

"Sorry," he said, "I'm feeling your skin texture, so I can recognise you if I need to. Would you mind extending your wings a bit?" he asked.

"Sure," I said, and slightly unfurled my wings, which were still a bit sore from their first flight. Iggy ran his fingers along them gently, he seemed to be memorising how they felt.

"Okay, I think I've got it," he said. "You can, erm, tuck them in now."

"Okay," I said, folding them into my back again, and smiling at him, even though he couldn't see it.

"Cassie, do you want some tips on how to fly better?" Nudge turned to look at me.

"Yeah, that would be great!"

Twenty minutes later, we had all finished eating. "Okay guys, we need to plan our next move," Max said. "We're going to rest up here tonight, but tomorrow we need to get as far away from here as possible. Tomorrow, we're going to go back to our old house, there might be something worth finding there," Fang shot her a look, but Max just continued talking. "I suggest you all get a good nights sleep," she said, glancing at me. "We've got a long day of flying ahead of us. I'll take first watch."

This announcement was met with murmurs of agreement, and then the rest of the Flock all gathered around Max, and I watched as they stacked their fists on top of one another. I stood back, just watching.

Max looked at me. "What are you waiting for?" she asked. "You're one of us now."

I grinned and went over, putting my hand on top of hers. Then the rest of the flock taped their fists with their free hand, and I did the same. After that, everyone broke up. Fang piled dirt on the fire, before joining the rest of us at the back of the cave. I lay down between Angel and Nudge, only just realising how tired I was.

I fell asleep as soon as I closed my eyes.


End file.
